How do I check what AI says about my business, and fix it if it's wrong?

The quick version of this check, from why ChatGPT doesn't recommend my business, takes three tools and about 30 minutes. This is the fuller audit: five tools, questions written the way your buyers talk, a simple sheet, and a plan for when an AI tool gets you wrong. Block out a morning.

Why check five AI tools instead of one?

Because they don't all look in the same places, so you can be described well in one and be missing or wrong in another.

ChatGPT: OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler is what surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search answers. Perplexity: its documentation says PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in its results. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode sit on top of Google Search; Google says they may run several related searches behind the scenes to find supporting pages. Microsoft Copilot draws on Bing. Claude: Anthropic says its Claude-SearchBot crawler indexes content for its search results.

How do I write questions that sound like my buyers?

Your buyer doesn't type "brand strategist Ohio." She types what's keeping her up at night: "who can help me figure out why my website gets visits but no inquiries?" Write eight to ten questions in three groups.

Problem questions describe the pain without naming a solution: "Why do my referrals dry up every summer?" Category questions ask for a type of help, with the details a real buyer would add: "Who's a good fractional CFO for a small architecture firm in Denver?" Name questions ask about you directly: "What does [your business] do, and who is it for?"

Borrow wording from discovery calls, intake forms, and prospect emails. If a client said it out loud, it's a better test question than anything you'd write as a marketer.

How do I run the audit, step by step?

1. Set up a simple sheet. Columns: date, tool, question, named (yes or no), how you were described, who was named instead, sources cited, and anything wrong. One row per question per tool.
2. Test logged out wherever you can. Use a private browser window and stay signed out where the tool allows it, so your own history doesn't shape the answer. Claude needs an account, so use an incognito chat, which Anthropic says doesn't use or add to Claude's memory.
3. Ask each question in a fresh chat. Earlier answers can steer later ones. Paste each answer, or a screenshot, into your sheet.
4. Check Google two ways. Run each question in regular Search and note whether an AI Overview appears. Then ask it again in AI Mode.
5. Open every source cited about you. Note which page each claim came from, whether it's yours, and whether it's current.
6. Score each row. Named or not. Described correctly or not. Mixed up with someone else or not.
7. Repeat monthly with the same questions. Answers can change from one run to the next, so look for patterns over months, not a single result.

How do I read the citations?

Citations show where the AI got its idea of you, which makes them the most useful part of the audit. Open the sources linked to any description of your business and sort them into four piles.

Your own pages. If the description is wrong and the source is your site, the problem is on your site. Old service pages and outdated bios are the usual suspects. Your profiles and listings. LinkedIn, directories, review sites. These often hold an older version of you. Other people's pages. Articles, podcast show notes, partner pages. Someone else entirely. A page about a different business with a similar name means you have a mix-up to untangle.

No sources at all can mean the answer came from what the model learned in training rather than a live search. That's slower to change, and the same fixes apply. To see how often your own site gets cited in Copilot, Microsoft added an AI Performance report to Bing Webmaster Tools in February 2026.

What do I do when AI gets my business wrong?

Fix the source first. AI tools repeat what they find, so the lasting fix is changing what they find.

The pages it cites. Update or retire whatever page the wrong claim came from. If it's someone else's page, email the owner with the correction.

A clear about page. One page that says, in plain sentences, what your business is, who runs it, who you serve, and where you work. If your name is shared with another organization, say how you're different. Our post on what to put on your website for AI search covers the rest.

Your listings. Make your name, description, services, and contact details match everywhere. Google's guidance for its AI features specifically mentions keeping your Business Profile up to date, but note that Google says online-only businesses aren't eligible for one: you must meet customers in person during your stated hours. For Copilot, Microsoft points owners to Bing Places for Business.

Then use the feedback buttons, as documented. Google says to click thumbs down on an AI Overview and choose "Report a problem"; AI Mode answers carry the same thumbs icons. OpenAI says you can click thumbs down under any ChatGPT response. Perplexity's help center says to open the three-dot menu below an answer and select Report. Anthropic says to use the thumbs down button on Claude responses. Microsoft documents thumbs feedback for Copilot in its Microsoft 365 apps. None of them promise feedback will change an answer about your business, so treat it as a note to the platform, not the fix.

What should I skip?

• Arguing with the chatbot. Correcting it in your own chat may change that conversation, but there's no documented way it changes what your next prospect sees.
• Panicking over one odd answer. Look for the same error across tools or across months before you act.
• Paid tracking tools before you have a baseline. A sheet and a morning is enough to start.
• Anyone who guarantees to fix what AI says about you. Nobody controls those answers.
• Rewriting your whole site at once. Fix the specific pages the AI cites, then check again.

What did we find when we audited ourselves?

We ran our own framework on Seats at the Table before we offered it to anyone else, and it surfaced problems we couldn't see from the inside. Several unrelated organizations use a name close to ours, including a UK neuroinclusion consultancy, two podcasts, and a networking group in Asia, which makes it easy for AI tools to blend us together. Search results also kept showing our old homepage title and a positioning we had retired, for a while after we changed it.

We fixed what we controlled first: our own pages, matching details, and a plain file for AI tools (called llms.txt) that spells out which "Seats at the Table" we are. Then we kept checking. What your website says and what AI tools say about you are two different things, and you only learn the second by asking.